The market’s clear demand for taller towers supporting larger turbines is greatly limited by the cost, capacity and availability of high-tonnage mobile cranes, the hoisting capacity of which reduces sharply as the reach height increases. Large mobile cranes involve high transport costs, complicated logistics and put demanding requirements on wind farms’ roads and work platforms.

The telescopic concrete tower, precast or cast in place, is an alternative for tall wind-turbine towers. Indeed, it is probably the only option available today for towers above 200 metres, and it is highly competitive from 170 metres upwards under certain conditions, such as, for instance, on wind farms with few towers that do not cover the mobilisation and demobilisation costs involved, sites in forested areas or isolated locations such as islands.

The tower and turbine are assembled at a low height and then raised with heavy-duty jacks up to 200 metres or more. All assembly operations will be carried out at a maximum height of 45 m, instead of 160, 180 or even 200 m. All the joining tasks can be performed from a single platform at the first joint level.